AuthorTopic: Anim8or is not saving properly - why? (Read 3584 times)

To explain, I regularly save my progress at important milestones. What's happening is I finish all my bone influences on my figure to how I want it and save, then I build a sequence and save that, I then move on to a scene using the figure and sequence I made then save. Then I render the animation. I go to close the file as normal.

Later I will come back and open the file and find that the file is saved at the point just before I started on the bone influences and I have to do it all over again. I have done this a couple times and wasted a lot of time redoing everything.

Can somebody explain to me what I am doing wrong? And how I can fix this?

Thanks in advance!

I've already made some awesome projects and am happy with anim8or. I don;t think the other files are affected but will check them now. Here's hoping they're ok!

Something to check, did you start editing from a quicksave at one point. I did that once and thought I lost progress, but it was saved in the quicksave I had loaded from, because I used the "save" option, not the "save as..." option. If you don't find it in the quicksaves, I would use the "save as..." option to make sure it saves to a different file, and see if it's the save not working right, or if it's not saving to that file. Hope this helps.

I must be missing something. Do I need to 'save as' every time instead of 'save'? Also it's only the 'bone influences' that seem to reset. The 'sequence' I made is still working just not the bone influences. They were working the first time and I got a render out of it with no problems. Then we I came back later and opened the file the bone influences had all reset.

When you use the "save" option, the program saves to the last edited/opened file. "Save as" saves a fresh file under a different name. Using "save" after using "save as" will cause the program to save in the new file location, like using "load" then "save" will save to the loaded location, even when the file name is "_autosave########.an8". Using the "save" option is fine, you just have to be wary of where it is saving to.From your first post it sounded like you lost all the progress from the point on from the bone influences. If everything else you did stayed then I'm less sure of what the problem is.

Did you edit the mesh or figure in any way, as many/most every way that does destroys bone influences from what I've done, and heard of.

Did you have multiple files saved including quicksaves? It's often easy to misplace progress if you load or save where you did not intend. Try saving to a new location and opening that file, after making some simple bone influence edits. If it's a saving error with the old file, perhaps anim8or is having issues with the file being partially corrupt, and saving to a fresh file will fix it.

Did other files you have end up with the same problem as well?

Edit:I just loaded a file up of my own, and the bone influences are working fine for me on the saving/loading end...

What version of anim8or are you using.... in the 0.97 series and above you are able to use autosave so none of your work is lost.

First make a folder where you want your autosaves saved to:Use Menu/file/configure

Then click the browse button, to point the autosave feature to your created folder, and the amount of time you want it saved...this creates a backup of your file/projects. Always works for me and gets over any crashes or hangs you may get. If you check start in previous ... the last file you were working on will get loaded

This is my normal configuration setup....( I dont check start in previous because i never seem to work all the time on one Project - normally have about four or five things on the go!)

When you use the "save" option, the program saves to the last edited/opened file. "Save as" saves a fresh file under a different name. Using "save" after using "save as" will cause the program to save in the new file location, like using "load" then "save" will save to the loaded location, even when the file name is "_autosave########.an8". Using the "save" option is fine, you just have to be wary of where it is saving to.From your first post it sounded like you lost all the progress from the point on from the bone influences. If everything else you did stayed then I'm less sure of what the problem is.

Did you edit the mesh or figure in any way, as many/most every way that does destroys bone influences from what I've done, and heard of.

Did you have multiple files saved including quicksaves? It's often easy to misplace progress if you load or save where you did not intend. Try saving to a new location and opening that file, after making some simple bone influence edits. If it's a saving error with the old file, perhaps anim8or is having issues with the file being partially corrupt, and saving to a fresh file will fix it.

Did other files you have end up with the same problem as well?

Edit:I just loaded a file up of my own, and the bone influences are working fine for me on the saving/loading end...

Sorry for the confusion, I only realised that it was just the bone influences that were resetting after I posted. I set up anim8or the way Kreator suggests and I did what you suggested and did a few bone influences on a figure. Then I 'saved as' and closed the program. I re-opened the program and opened the file and checked the bone influences. They have reset.

Me mixing up names again... I was thinking weights, not influences. So I did a test as well. I made a cylinder and put two bones in it and used bone influences instead of weights. It carried over without a problem. I tried editing the influences in it a bit, adding a sequence, editing the bones, adding it to a scene; but each time the file loaded properly. So I'm stumped. The only thing I can think of, and I'm not sure will help or even be that useful of an idea, is to re-download anim8or and try it again. But again, I'm not sure that would help, as it would be rather weird for anim8or to have been corrupted through download or something, but work properly in every way but loading bone information.

Oh, one last thing, are you the administrator on your computer? I'd think if you were saving somewhere you're not "supposed" to would stop the file entirely, but I'm pulling at straws.

I've never tried weights before but I tried it out. I simply 'rubbed' the leg of the object after selecting a bone until the colour changed from red to yellow on the leg and yes it works. I saved and closed anim8or and reopened to find the weight was still the same. I found the other way easier to implement but that's just me and in time I may get better at it.